Crawford Starrick

Crawford Starrick (18 August 1827-1868) was a very wealthy British businessman who owned Starrick Industries, a massive empire that included locomotives, telegraphs, and breweries, among other types of enterprises. Starrick plotted against the life of Queen Victoria in 1868 in order to seize power for himself, but he was killed by Jacob Frye and his sister Evie Frye, who were invested in the Order of the Sacred Garter by the queen in gratitude.

Biography
Crawford Starrick was born in the West End of London, the younger son of Robert Starrick, a wealthy but un-landed businessman who had famously tripled the value of his family estate as a young man by investing in the heady early days of Railway Mania. The Starrick sons were bred for competition by their competitive father. Throughout their early childhood they were neck and neck in academics and sports. When Crawford was twelve, boarding school provided an opportunity for his family to put Crawford in a place where he would not fight with his brother. Ostracized by his family, he was abandoned at his school. In his private notebooks, he began to see humanity as divided into two strata: those who served and those who ruled. Recognizing that he would earn no friends at school, he settled instead for lackeys. He sharpened his charm to a fine point, hid his disdain behind smiles and helpful words, until he could bend teachers and peers to his will. Teachers believed that he had a natural gift for leadership, as he proved to be a good leader. Upon graduation, he modeled himself as a railroad baron, and through smart purchasing and the strange disappearance of the competition, he rose to the top. With his larger fortune he expanded into many different industries, also broadening his reach across London. He fell in love once with his cousin Pearl Attaway, a businesswoman as ruthless as he, but she refused to marry him.

Starrick's ambitions led to him joining the Templar Order, a secret society that had held control over London since the 18th century, when Reginald Birch took over most of England for the Templars. Starrick rose to become the Grand Master, and he was bent on world domination; he felt that whoever controlled London was in charge of the world. He expanded Starrick Industries to include not only locomotives, but he also had a telegraph company, a brewery, and "Starrick's Soothing Syrup", helping him in becoming rich and owning his own mansion. With the help of Maxwell Roth, he formed the Blighters street gang and had gang leaders in the seven boroughs of central London, consolidating his rule. All looked well for him until 1868, when the rival Assassin Order formed the Rooks gang, led by the twins Jacob Frye and his sister Evie Frye. The Frye twins assassinated several of his associates, challenging Starrick's rule. They started out by taking over Whitechapel, but they expanded into Lambeth and proceeded to hunt down Starrick's companions during their search for the Shroud of Turin, a rare and powerful artifact. Attaway was killed by Jacob Frye, striking a personal note with Starrick; he also lost his second-in-command Lucy Thorne to Evie Frye. Ultimately, Starrick found out that the shroud was located under Buckingham Palace, and he headed there during a ball held by Queen Victoria.

Starrick forced Evie to dance with him as his guards searched for the entrance to the catacombs where the shroud was held, but Evie later kicked him in the lower body and ran off to find the shroud with Jacob. Starrick reached the area first and used the shroud to hold back the twins, who took turns attacking him while the other was recovering from the artifact's blasts. Starrick had the advantage over them when Henry Green threw a knife in his back, wounding him. Starrick knocked Green out, but the Frye twins both charged at him and hacked at him before stabbing him simultaneously, finishing their enemy off. Starrick's death was a blow to the Templars, although London was not free of their rule yet. The Assassins proceeded to liberate the remaining boroughs from the Templars and finish all of their associate's jobs, freeing the city.